I love an underdog. No, I don't necessarily mean the cartoon. I mean like David, as in Goliath, or the Bears, as in The Bad News Bears. (Yes, that might be the first time those two things were ever in the same sentence.)
This week, DoSomething.org was nominated for a Webby, the Oscars for websites. We're in the Youth category in the Living section--up against giants like MTV and Marvel Comics--so we're literally battling a superhero. We spent less than $150,000 to build our new site. Our CTO taught himself to write code by buying one of those "For Dummies" books and just spending really long hours in the office. Our writing team consists of a Latina single mom, a 23 year old who started here as an intern and was so good we had to hire her, and a handful of high schools students. Our CMO is 26 years old and has her tongue pierced. Our grants manager spends every vacation day she has in Africa working with poor kids. We have a college intern this semester, who has pulled several all-nighters in the office, and three gay guys all named Kevin - seriously.
So this Webby nomination has got me thinking about favorite underdogs. Our staff came up with a good list. Can you add more?
The Chicago Cubs
Davidson basketball (Ok. We have an alum in the office.)
The Mighty Ducks (from the movie, not the real team)
The Hoosiers (again, the movie)
State Senator Barack Obama
The Cutters (from Breaking Away)
The Pre-2004 Red Sox
In-n-Out Burger
Molly Ringwald in Pretty in Pink (and Duckie too)
The CW
Rudy (not Giuliani)
The Hartford Whalers
Chloe Kardashian
Justin Guarini
Pepsi
Pushing Daisies
Canada
And, the Earth
And while you're at it, how about going to dosomething.org/vote and casting a vote for us to win that Webby? Do it for the Kevins...
Written with James C. Elbaor
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/14/susan-boyle-britains-sing_n_186787.html